MORE NEWS, 9-8: 500 STIM MILLIONS FLOWS TO NEW ENERGY; CHINA’S SUNTECH SETS PV RECORD; SIMPLIFYING THE SMART GRID; $20/GALLON GAS?

500 STIM MILLIONS FLOWS TO NEW ENERGY
U.S. Doles Out Grants for Energy Projects
Russell Gold, September 2, 2009 (Wall Street Journal)

"The U.S. government handed out $502 million in grants for a dozen wind- and solar-power projects from Maine to South Texas, the first round in a new subsidy program designed to spur renewable-energy investment.

"The program appears to be accomplishing two of the Obama administration's goals: producing employment and encouraging renewable-energy development. The approved energy projects have created about 2,000 jobs and capacity to generate 850 megawatts of clean electricity, enough for nearly 500,000 homes…But while the wind farms and solar installations are in the U.S., the profits from these projects are flowing mainly to European companies and developers…"

The flow of stimulus money will likely drive productivity to the upper ranges of this Emerging Energy Research forecast. (click to enlarge)

"Iberdrola SA, the Spanish wind-power giant, was awarded $294 million for [pushing ahead five U.S. wind] projects…Horizon Wind Energy, the U.S. unit of Energias de Portugal SA, received $47.7 million for an Oregon wind farm.

"Other recipients included First Wind Energy Holdings LLC, a company backed by private-equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners and hedge fund D.E. Shaw. It received three grants totaling $115.1 million for wind farms in New York and Maine…First Wind…pledged to use the grants to invest in additional [U.S.] projects…"

Foreign and U.S. investment is exploding all across the country. (click to enlarge)

"EverPower Wind Holdings Inc. [in which British private-equity firm Terra Firma Capital Partners recently bought a controlling stake] received a $42.2 million grant for a wind farm in Pennsylvania…[T]he project stalled last year when many of the traditional investors in wind, such as Lehman Brothers Holdings, Goldman Sachs Group and Morgan Stanley, were tossed by market turmoil and the recession.

"The program has no cap and government officials pledged to award grants to all qualified applicants through 2011."


CHINA’S SUNTECH SETS PV RECORD
Suntech Claims New World Record in Silicon Panel Efficiency; The Fraunhofer Institute verifies that a Suntech Power multicrystalline silicon panel has beaten Sandia’s record. Suntech intends to have a 300MW capacity to produce its new Pluto cells and panels in 2010.
Ucilla Wang, August 19, 2009 (GreenTech Media)

"…[A solar panel composed of Suntech Power Holding's] newly developed [multicrystalline silicon] Pluto cells [set the world record for efficiency by converting] 15.6 percent of the sunlight…[hitting them] into electricity, Suntech said…The Fraunhofer Institute of Solar Energy Systems in Germany, one of the few labs in the world whose test results are recognized by the industry, verified…The panel rolled off a new factory line…set up to start shipping Pluto panels earlier this year.

"The new record will be included by the science journal Progress in Photovoltaics (PIP)…Suntech's efficiency number isn't much higher than the 15.5 percent record previously held by Sandia [National Laboratories]. But Suntech contends its panel could have surpassed 16 percent if it were tested without its frame, as was…Sandia's panel."

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"…[Suntech's Pluto cells were] developed with technology licensed from the University of New South Wales. Suntech's founder and CEO Zhengrong Shi taught at the university for years…The university holds the world record for silicon cells made in a lab, which were tested by Sandia and yielded 25 percent efficiency. Cells made in the labs tend to be able to achieve higher efficiencies than those from commercial production lines.

"The Pluto technology focuses on improving the cell's ability to trap light to boost electricity production. Pluto cells also use copper instead of silver…for transporting the electricity produced by the cells…[Silver] can be pricey. Copper has similar conductivity but is cheaper. Suntech also uses less copper to further reduce cost…[but] declined to disclose Pluto's manufacturing costs."

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"Pluto can be used to make either monocrystalline [19 percent efficiency] or multicrystalline [17 percent efficiency] cells…[M]onocrystalline cells are more [time consuming, energy intensive and] expensive to make…but they yield higher efficiencies. Most of the silicon panels on the market today are of the multicrystalline variety…SunPower, in San Jose, Calif., is known for producing the most efficient [22.5 percent] monocrystalline silicon cells…Its panels could achieve a little over 19 percent efficiency.

"Suntech started shipping Pluto panels earlier this year, but the volume [1-to-2 megawatts per month] has been small…The company expects to ship 10 megawatts to 15 megawatts of Pluto panels by the end of 2009…[I]nstalled in China and Australia...Suntech is waiting for IEC and UL certification to sell [Pluto cells] in Europe and the United States…Suntech is set to have the manufacturing capacity to produce 300 megawatts of Pluto cells and panels per year [in 2010]…[by converting] existing lines to make Pluto products…"


SIMPLIFYING THE SMART GRID
IBM and Trilliant Team to Simplify Smart Grid
John Gartner, August 25, 2009 (Matter Network via Reuters)

"Turning the country's vast islands of proprietary utility networks and isolated power equipment into an intelligent grid that manages the power going into homes, offices and factories will take decades and hundreds of billions of dollars. IBM is partnering with veteran energy efficiency and grid communications company Trilliant to ensure that the companies' grid hardware and software will speak the same language.

"The agreement to integrate IBM's Websphere and Tivoli products…into Trilliant's smart grid communications system provides utilities with and end-to-end system for collecting information and administering grid operations."

A small sampling of the players to be reconciled if interoperability is to be achieved. (click to enlarge)

"Trilliant, which currently has more than 200 utility customers, provides technology that can relay information about power consumption and network performance from smart meters in homes, to utility equipment out in the field…The company will build its management system using Websphere… and the Tivoli network management suite.

"IBM and Trilliant will be able to resell each others products, enabling utilities to work with one company for all of its smart grid management needs. The two will also work together to develop grid standards, and will coordinate efforts with national standards bodies…Trilliant is forming strategic relationships with many of the top smart grid firms…"

The goal. (click to enlarge)

"The federal government has provided $4 billion in stimulus funding for smart grid initiatives, and venture capital investment in energy efficiency startups grew by 168 percent during the second quarter of 2009…IBM says the utilities and energy sector is one of the highest growth industries for the company. In addition to enhancing its products to make energy equipment more efficient, IBM is also looking to sell services to mitigate the impact of climate change…

"…[A] recent IBM-sponsored report [said] ninety percent of utilities expect that climate change will put their business at risk due to more severe weather that will damage equipment and reduce the availability of fresh water."


$20/GALLON GAS?
Visions of an Energy-Starved World
Devin Leonard, September 5, 2009 (NY Times)

"Christopher Steiner…author of $20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives for the Better...a staff writer at Forbes and a civil engineer…[says there is a] dwindling supply and burgeoning demand for gasoline…[Oil gushers]…are a thing of the past, and he points to the booming economies of countries like India and China, which will enable hundreds of millions of new drivers to hit the highways…

"Ultimately, he contends, these forces will drive the price of fuel far beyond $4 a gallon. In each successive chapter of the book, he describes how an additional $2 price increase might affect us…“$20 Per Gallon” …[is] a book full of fanciful predictions, some of which should probably be taken seriously, though certainly not all of them. Here are just a few: $8 gasoline will doom most United States airlines. When gas reaches $10 a gallon, Disney World will close. At $12, suburbanites will no longer be able to afford McMansions or their long commutes. And, at $14, it will be too expensive for Wal-Mart to gas up the truck fleet that moves goods around the country."

From cpsteine via YouTube

"Mr. Steiner asserts that good would come from such a future…[forcing] us to upgrade our public transportation systems, renovate our cities, get around more on foot and eat more locally grown food…[as well as build New Energy, travel] on ultrafast trains…[and] by subway…

"…The book acknowledges that the transition will be difficult, but glosses over just how painful it could be for the losers in this new, green economy…[H]igh gas prices will force suburbanites to move into cities where they don’t need cars…[bringing] a renaissance in rust-belt cities like Cleveland or St. Louis. But cities like New York are already crowded…[W]hen suburbanites…descend on Brooklyn…rent will be…[unaffordable]…[E]xpensive gas [also] will create vacant suburban strip malls…[and] abandoned stores…when gas reaches $14 a gallon."

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"Mr. Steiner thinks that this development will lead to a rejuvenation of small towns. But if it’s too expensive for Wal-Mart to get diapers on the shelves, how will the mom-and-pop grocery on Main Street do it? You can’t get everything at the local farm.

"The book’s arguments are sometimes overstated in hyperbolic prose…But…If Mr. Steiner is correct about the future of gas prices, many people will disagree with his premise that their lives are better…"